SIM card dirty solution

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Liquidau

Liquidau

Alchemist
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2019
Messages
116
Location
Toronto
So a month into working on SIMs, I have over 30 lbs of processed foils (plastic backings removed by hot 20% NaOH solution, plus frequent mechanical stirring in a 16 Gal steel drum, all over 2-3 hours in 5 lb batches).
I added enough HCl to cover a 4 lb sample, with heat, and then added HNO3 a few ml at a time. Some red gas came off, likely because of all the copper. Stannous test is positive, but cannot drop any gold.
Is there too much copper and other metals present?
Is there an ideal pH to aim for (with what?)
Should Denox be done with sulfamic only, or would urea help here because of the other nitrates?
Thanks for any tips.
 
Can you show me the pictures of your undissolved sim card foils please? I've not seen those before in gold foil form- so I'm a little confused as to your description. Also is your solution completely clear of solids? Thanks in advance this would be really helpful.

Jon
 
anachronism said:
Can you show me the pictures of your undissolved sim card foils please? I've not seen those before in gold foil form- so I'm a little confused as to your description. Also is your solution completely clear of solids? Thanks in advance this would be really helpful.

Jon
Click to expand...

Hey Jon,
Thanks for responding. Images attached of the foils after they are removed from the plastic backing, and then of clean foils. Got lots of those now!
Solutions are filtered/settled/clear. Ph is 1 to 1.2; solutions are dark green; Stannous is medium dark.
 

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No problem thanks for that. I don't think the school production video adds much though! Are your surfaces now clear of gold?

Two points, if the stannous is medium dark then yes there's gold in there. What's the volume of liquid please? Are your surfaces now clear of gold?

As an FYI you don't get NOX from only dissolving copper.
 
Liquidau said:
anachronism said:
No problem thanks for that. I don't think the school production video adds much though! Are your surfaces now clear of gold?

Two points, if the stannous is medium dark then yes there's gold in there. What's the volume of liquid please? Are your surfaces now clear of gold?

As an FYI you don't get NOX from only dissolving copper.
Click to expand...
Thanks Jon…sorry about the video but they are cute 😆.
Click to expand...
Even after AR treatment, HCl covering all and adding nitric slowly with heat, not all of the gold surfaces seem to have dissolved. I have about 10 litres of solution. So not sure about the ideal pH, denoxing, SMB or ferrous sulphate to drop, and whether the copper and base metals present are hindering the entire process.
Liquidau said:
Hey Jon,
Thanks for responding. Images attached of the foils after they are removed from the plastic backing, and then of clean foils. Got lots of those now!
Solutions are filtered/settled/clear. Ph is 1 to 1.2; solutions are dark green; Stannous is medium dark.
Click to expand...
anachronism said:
No problem thanks for that. I don't think the school production video adds much though! Are your surfaces now clear of gold?

Two points, if the stannous is medium dark then yes there's gold in there. What's the volume of liquid please? Are your surfaces now clear of gold?

As an FYI you don't get NOX from only dissolving copper.
Click to expand...
 
Don't try to denox a solution if gold is still present because frankly, you're not completing the reaction as it stands.

How many more have you got to do? Because 10 litres from a few pounds is too much liquid. I'd be covering the items in liquid warming the AR and then when the gold is fully gone I would be pouring the AR onto another batch. Naturally you would wash the stripped parts, and put that back into your original AR, so keep your volumes as small as possible. Use a sieve and or a spray bottle for this. This way your AR will get more and more gold in it. It's perfectly re-usable if you do this.

If you have a fair quantity you should be using warm solutions and an excess of Nitric to ensure the reaction completes at each stage. The literally pour off, rinse and repeat. Over a few batches your stannous test will become stringer and stronger. Be advised though there's not a lot of gold on these faces.
 
anachronism said:
Don't try to denox a solution if gold is still present because frankly, you're not completing the reaction as it stands.

How many more have you got to do? Because 10 litres from a few pounds is too much liquid. I'd be covering the items in liquid warming the AR and then when the gold is fully gone I would be pouring the AR onto another batch. Naturally you would wash the stripped parts, and put that back into your original AR, so keep your volumes as small as possible. Use a sieve and or a spray bottle for this. This way your AR will get more and more gold in it. It's perfectly re-usable if you do this.

If you have a fair quantity you should be using warm solutions and an excess of Nitric to ensure the reaction completes at each stage. The literally pour off, rinse and repeat. Over a few batches your stannous test will become stringer and stronger. Be advised though there's not a lot of gold on these faces.
Click to expand...
Great advice Jon, many thanks. The volume comes from having two 3 litre beakers that were half filled with foils and then submerged in HCl. I have at least 100 more pounds of foils coming, and the issue becomes how to heat a larger volume of AR. Most plastic buckets melt when heated, and steel drums react. That’s a lot of 3 litre glass beaker-fills. Any ideas out there for larger reaction vessel for heated AR?
And I read somewhere that a diluted pH of 3 was preferred for dropping gold. Anyone with knowledge of this?
Many thanks again.
Len
 
Many farm supply shops sell heaters for buckets in the 5 gallon size. While they don’t get really hot they will keep them above ambient temperatures. I think it was GSP that used these quite often.
 
Liquidau said:
Thanks again. Found a heater that goes to 65C and another one to 100C. I’m thinking for hot AR that 65C is enough.
I’ll keep you posted.
Click to expand...
65% is hot enough to work with. Bear in mind that for every 10 degrees C your reaction speed doubles, so be extremely careful adding Nitric to your solution. Take it easy but keep it running.

You'll boil over at some point in your journey, everyone does in their refining path (whether they admit to it or not ;) ) so make sure you have some way of catching your liquid if that happens. There are many threads about catch pans etc.
 
Those "stripped foils" needs to be incinerated to liberate bonding wires encased in clear epoxy on the bottom side. That is where most of the gold in sim cards actually is.
 
Thanks Patnor. I have been cooking a bunch in AR, and it’s a very very dark green mixture. Lots of solids too, though probably need to dilute it down or add more HCl. Trying now to extract and filter down 500ml in order to gauge the yield on the total of 12 litres.
 
My 2 cents.

Burn, burn, burn 1st thing to do.
I dont see why you would put them in hot 20% NaOH solution
then grind up in blender( buy them cheap at goodwill)
If nothing else it will burn off that plastic and free up the bonding wires
and concentrate the amount of material to be worked.
 
True, burning gets rid of all plastics. But is a big pain in the arse, needing to pyrolyse first and then uncover to let burn completely. Especially with a few hundred pounds, it’s a LOT of plastic to burn, whereas the NaOH treatment eliminates 2/3 of the weight.
But burning is always necessary to get rid of plastic. Thanks for your tip.
 

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